MouseZ()

[Dozz]

Camera looking & moving below are as in the tutorials, I added zooming with the mouse wheel this afternoon, but having set the min and max zoom levels to 2 and 20 I now find that if I roll below 2, lets say -20, I need to roll forward 22 units before I can zoom in. Similar if I roll to value 40, I need to roll back 20 units before I can zoom out. Can the MouseZ() be set or is it just read only?

 

 

mx = Curve(MouseX()-winCX,mx,5); my = Curve(MouseY()-winCY,my,5); // camera look

MoveMouse(winCX,winCY);

camrotation.X = camrotation.X+my/(12.0*mzLast*mzLast); camrotation.Y = camrotation.Y-mx/(12.0*mzLast*mzLast); // *mzLast*mzLast better sensitivity when zoomed

RotateEntity(cam,camrotation);

 

move = Curve(KeyDown(KEY_W)-KeyDown(KEY_S),move,5); // camera fly

strafe = Curve(KeyDown(KEY_D)-KeyDown(KEY_A),strafe,5);

MoveEntity(cam,Vec3(strafe/strafeSpeed,0,move/moveSpeed));

 

mzNow = MouseZ(); // camera zooming

if (mzNow < 2) { mzNow = 2; } if (mzNow > 20) { mzNow = 20; }

if (mzNow != mzLast) {

mz = Curve(mzNow - mzLast,mz,100);

CameraZoom(cam,mz*mz);

mzLast = mz;

}

[macklebee]

Use FlushMouse() to reset the value to zero.

[Canardia]

You can also use only the difference of MouseZ() between two frames.

[Dozz]

Thanks guys, I tried FlushMouse() and it didnt seem to reset MouseZ()? maybe I'm not applying it correctly. I will try the difference approach.

 

Next on my todo list is multiple selections using shift and/or ctrl. I'm thinking an array with pointers of the selected entities, before I start on that I would lke to ask what method of managing the selections is typically used?

 

Thanks

Paul

[Canardia]

The selection flag should be part of the entities, so you don't need to make a seperate list for selected entities. You should make a vector or map with the entities you want to loop and access quickly.

[Rick]

The selection flag should be part of the entities, so you don't need to make a seperate list for selected entities. You should make a vector or map with the entities you want to loop and access quickly.

 

Your second statement is why your first statement doesn't make sense. The reason he wants to add selections to a list is so he can loop through them quickly.

 

Dozz, an stl list works just fine.

[Dozz]

thanks a lot

[Canardia]

I meant with a own vector or map you don't have to loop all entities in the 3 worlds of the engine. Since every game has somekind of loop which loops through all wanted entities, adding a seperate selection list would only cause more looping.

[Rick]

adding a seperate selection list would only cause more looping

 

I guess the question would then be is a function call (to get the keys) and an if statement (to check the keys) for every loaded entity more expensive than storing your own list that probably has just a handful of entities in it for the selection list more costly or not? I would venture to say looping through 5 or so entities in a separate list is cheaper than checking every loaded entity for a specific key value. Of course the more entities you have loaded the better the separate list way is.

[Dozz]

Chuffed with zooming working correctly now using the difference method, didn't take long, thanks for the advice

[Canardia]

You need also a special logic for AppSuspended(), because when the user Alt-Tabs out and back of the window, the MouseZ() is set to 0 and you will get a wrong difference. You can copy the logic from GameLib, see the functions Game::IsSuspended() (this is where the Alt-Tab bug is handled) and Game::PositionCamera() (where the camera is moved with the MouseZ() diff).